VPN - Revision history

Razor: /* VPNs and anonymity */

2011-04-27T13:25:45Z

‎VPNs and anonymity

Razor: /* See Also */

2011-04-27T13:09:06Z

‎See Also

.FUF at 18:07, 1 September 2009

2009-09-01T18:07:37Z

.FUF at 06:15, 7 May 2009

2009-05-07T06:15:29Z

Baneki: /* Overview */

2009-05-06T22:23:34Z

‎Overview

Baneki: /* VPNs and anonymity */

2009-05-06T22:20:39Z

‎VPNs and anonymity

Baneki: /* See Also */

2009-05-06T22:14:37Z

‎See Also

Baneki at 22:12, 6 May 2009

2009-05-06T22:12:24Z

Baneki: /* VPN and anonymity */

2009-05-06T22:00:25Z

‎VPN and anonymity

.FUF at 13:43, 4 February 2009

2009-02-04T13:43:01Z

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 == VPNs and anonymity ==
-* Log files: VPN services may maintain usage logs which could then be used to track the activities of the user of those services, after the fact. However some commercial consumer-oriented VPN services specifically configure their servers not to retain any logfile information of this type. An example is [[Cryptocloud VPN]].
+* Log files: VPN services may maintain usage logs which could then be used to track the activities of the user of those services, after the fact. However some commercial consumer-oriented VPN services specifically configure their servers not to retain any logfile information of this type. Example are [[Cryptocloud VPN]] or [[iVPN]].
 * Protocol stack: [[TCP timestamps]] and IP ID values may be used in correlating incoming (encrypted) and outgoing (unencrypted) network streams. This type of "traffic analysis" can, in theory, be used to gather information about a fully-encrypted VPN connection - in practice, there are no known public examples of traffic analysis being used against commercial VPN service providers.

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 == See Also ==
 * [[Cryptocloud VPN]]
 * [[Tor]]

@@ Line 7: / Line 7: @@
 Virtual Private Networks are deployed by organizations and individuals for different purposes:
-* Protecting confidential information in organizations, when connecting geographically distant office networks;
+* Protecting confidential information in organizations (for example, when connecting geographically distant office networks);
 * Providing "work from home" or traveling employees with secure remote access to office network resources;
 * Securing general Internet traffic in particularly insecure network usage settings (e.g. open wireless networks);
 * Encrypting all internet traffic to and from a home connection, to prevent ISP packet shaping and/or surveillance (i.e. [http://www.torrentfreedom.net Torrentfreedom Privacy]).
-When used for Internet connectivity, VPN service also acts as a form of proxy and protects the user's physical IP address from public display. As a result, they are an increasingly popular form of anonymity protection for ordinary internet users and criminals.
+When used for Internet connectivity, VPN service also acts as a form of proxy and protects the user's real IP address from public display. As a result, they are an increasingly popular form of anonymity protection for ordinary internet users and criminals.
 == VPNs and anonymity ==

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 * Providing "work from home" or traveling employees with secure remote access to office network resources;
 * Securing general Internet traffic in particularly insecure network usage settings (e.g. open wireless networks);
-* Encrypting all internet traffic to and from a home connection, to prevent ISP packet shaping and/or surveillance (i.e. [http://www.torrentfreedom.net Torrentfreedom Privacy].
+* Encrypting all internet traffic to and from a home connection, to prevent ISP packet shaping and/or surveillance (i.e. [http://www.torrentfreedom.net Torrentfreedom Privacy]).
-When used for Internet connectivity, VPN service also acts as a form of proxy and protects the user's physical IP address from public display. As a result, they are an increasingly popular form of anonymity protection for internet users. While there are some concerns that the availability of anonymous connectivity would encourage true fraud, in practice those engaged in commercial fraud online use other, existing tools to keep their activities from being discovered - there is no known case of a commercial VPN service being used to further a fraudulent activity online, thus far.
+When used for Internet connectivity, VPN service also acts as a form of proxy and protects the user's physical IP address from public display. As a result, they are an increasingly popular form of anonymity protection for ordinary internet users and criminals.
 == VPNs and anonymity ==
-* Log files: VPN services may maintain usage logs which could then be used to track the activities of the user of those services, after the fact. However some commercial consumer-oriented VPN services specifically configure their servers not to retain any logfile information of this type. An example is [[Cryptocloud_VPN]].
+* Log files: VPN services may maintain usage logs which could then be used to track the activities of the user of those services, after the fact. However some commercial consumer-oriented VPN services specifically configure their servers not to retain any logfile information of this type. An example is [[Cryptocloud VPN]].
-* Protocol stack: [[TCP timestamps]] and IP ID values may be used in correlating incoming (encrypted) and outgoing (unencrypted) network streams. This type of "traffic analysis" can, in theory, be used to gather information about a fully-encrypted VPN connection - in practice, there are no known examples of traffic analysis being used against commercial VPN service providers.
+* Protocol stack: [[TCP timestamps]] and IP ID values may be used in correlating incoming (encrypted) and outgoing (unencrypted) network streams. This type of "traffic analysis" can, in theory, be used to gather information about a fully-encrypted VPN connection - in practice, there are no known public examples of traffic analysis being used against commercial VPN service providers.
 == See Also ==

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 * Providing "work from home" or traveling employees with secure remote access to office network resources;
 * Securing general Internet traffic in particularly insecure network usage settings (e.g. open wireless networks);
-* Encrypting all internet traffic to and from a home connection, to prevent ISP packet shaping and/or surveillance (i.e. Torrentfreedom Privacy, www.torrentfreedom.net).
+* Encrypting all internet traffic to and from a home connection, to prevent ISP packet shaping and/or surveillance (i.e. [http://www.torrentfreedom.net Torrentfreedom Privacy].
 When used for Internet connectivity, VPN service also acts as a form of proxy and protects the user's physical IP address from public display. As a result, they are an increasingly popular form of anonymity protection for internet users. While there are some concerns that the availability of anonymous connectivity would encourage true fraud, in practice those engaged in commercial fraud online use other, existing tools to keep their activities from being discovered - there is no known case of a commercial VPN service being used to further a fraudulent activity online, thus far.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{expand}}
-'''VPN''' (Virtual Private Network) is a computer network in which some of the links between nodes are carried by connections in another network (with optional [[encryption]]).
+'''VPN''' (Virtual Private Network) is a class of technology that allows remote machines to interconnect by creating a virtual network layer, on top of the physical network connection, that in practice is used to maintain the privacy of data shared over this virtual network connection (essentially all VPN toolsets use some form of packet-level [[encryption]]). There are many different modern implementations of the VPN concept itself, to the point where categorizing them together becomes somewhat questionable.
 == Overview ==
-Virtual Private Networks are widely used by organizations and individuals for different purposes:
+Virtual Private Networks are deployed by organizations and individuals for different purposes:
-* Protecting confidential information in organizations;
+* Protecting confidential information in organizations, when connecting geographically distant office networks;
-* Providing employees with secure remote access to the network;
+* Providing "work from home" or traveling employees with secure remote access to office network resources;
-* Securing Internet traffic in insecure networks (e.g. open wireless networks).
+* Securing general Internet traffic in particularly insecure network usage settings (e.g. open wireless networks);
-Some VPN services are focused on providing solutions to promote fraud. In this case, VPN service is used for anonymity.
+When used for Internet connectivity, VPN service also acts as a form of proxy and protects the user's physical IP address from public display. As a result, they are an increasingly popular form of anonymity protection for internet users. While there are some concerns that the availability of anonymous connectivity would encourage true fraud, in practice those engaged in commercial fraud online use other, existing tools to keep their activities from being discovered - there is no known case of a commercial VPN service being used to further a fraudulent activity online, thus far.
-== VPN and anonymity ==
+== VPNs and anonymity ==
-* Log files: VPN services may maintain usage logs, however some commercial consumer-oriented VPN services specifically configure their servers not to retain any logfile information of this type. An example is Cryptocloud (www.cryptocloud.net).
+* Log files: VPN services may maintain usage logs which could then be used to track the activities of the user of those services, after the fact. However some commercial consumer-oriented VPN services specifically configure their servers not to retain any logfile information of this type. An example is Cryptocloud (www.cryptocloud.net).
 * Protocol stack: [[TCP timestamps]] and IP ID values may be used in correlating incoming (encrypted) and outgoing (unencrypted) network streams. This type of "traffic analysis" can, in theory, be used to gather information about a fully-encrypted VPN connection - in practice, there are no known examples of traffic analysis being used against commercial VPN service providers.

@@ Line 17: / Line 17: @@
 * Log files: VPN services may maintain usage logs;
 * Protocol stack: [[TCP timestamps]] and IP ID values may be used in correlating incoming (encrypted) and outgoing (unencrypted) network streams.
 [[Category:Anti-Forensics]]
 [[Category:Network Forensics]]
 [[Category:Encryption]]